Attackers with knowledge of medical devices could interfere with the functionality of Medtronic devices.

The flaws affect the Conexus Radio Frequency Telemetry Protocol used by Medtronic defibrillators to enable wireless connections to implanted devices over the air using radio-waves.

“Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow an attacker with adjacent short-range access to one of the affected products to interfere with, generate, modify, or intercept the radio frequency (RF) communication of the Medtronic proprietary Conexus telemetry system, potentially impacting product functionality and/or allowing access to transmitted sensitive data,” warns the advisory released by DHS.

“An attacker with adjacent short-range access to an affected product, in situations where the product’s radio is turned on, can inject, replay, modify, and/or intercept data within the telemetry communication.” continues the advisory. “This communication protocol provides the ability to read and write memory values to affected implanted cardiac devices; therefore, an attacker could exploit this communication protocol to change memory in the implanted cardiac device.

“The Conexus telemetry protocol utilized within this ecosystem does not implement encryption. An attacker with adjacent short-range access to a target product can listen to communications, including the transmission of sensitive data.” states the advisory.

The Conexus telemetry protocol doesn’t implement encryption to secure communications. An attacker could exploit the flaw could intercept, spoof, or modify data transmitting between the device and its controller,

Medtronic clarified that the exploitation of the vulnerabilities is hard and the following conditions have to be met:

(1) an RF device capable of transmitting or receiving Conexus telemetry communication, such as a monitor, programmer, or software-defined radio (SDR);

(2) to have adjacent short-range access to the affected products;

(3) for the products to be in states where the RF functionality is active.

According to the security advisory published by Medtronic, neither a cyberattack nor patient harm has been observed or associated with these vulnerabilities to this date.

The company clarified that Medtronic pacemakers don’t use Conexus telemetry, additionally, CareLink Express monitors and the CareLink Encore programmers (Model 29901) used by some hospitals and clinics do not use Conexus telemetry too.

Medtronic has already implemented additional controls for monitoring and responding to the abuse of the Conexus protocol by the implanted devices. The company is working on security patches to address the vulnerabilities.

“Medtronic is developing updates to mitigate these vulnerabilities. We will inform patients and physicians when they become available (subject to regulatory approvals). Medtronic recommends that patients and physicians continue to use these devices as prescribed and intended.” concludes Medtronic.

“The benefits of remote monitoring outweigh the practical risk that these vulnerabilities could be exploited. These benefits include earlier detection of arrhythmias, fewer hospital visits and improved survival rates”

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Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer.
Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US.
Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines.
Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.

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